redrikki

Title: The Beast You Made of Me
Fandom: DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Characters: Mona Wu, Charlie
Length: 582 words
Rating: PG
Summary: The Waverider's resident shapeshifters compare notes.

Notes: Written for

dctvgenevents Pride Month challenge and

hc_bingo "first transformation."

Read on AO3 or Mona felt a stab of envy as she watched Charlie slip back into Amaya Jiwe’s face. It looked so easy when she did it. No crunching bones. No howls of pain. Mona bet Charlie had never ruined her favorite shirt transforming into a monster. Actually, come to think of it, the way the shapeshifter changed her clothes along with her face, Mona was starting to wonder if Charlie was even wearing anything at all.

Charlie snagged a beer from the fridge and began assembling a sandwich at the counter. Ham and cheese. Wolfie wanted it, but Mona grabbed some humus instead. It wasn’t easy being a vegetarian when her alter ego yearned for red meat.

“Can I ask you about your powers?” Mona asked as she joined her friend at the counter. Konane had told her what it was like been a kaupe, but he’d been one all the time. She needed a shapeshifter’s perspective.

“Sure, mate,” Charlie said as she put the finishing touches on her sandwich. She licked some mustard off of her finger. “We’re all monsters here.”

Mona winced. Growing up, she’d always imagined herself as the heroine in a novel. She’d just thought it would be more Jane Austin and less Patricia Briggs. Not that she didn’t love a good paranormal romance. Who didn’t fantasize about getting with a hot monster? She just didn’t want to be the monster.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, dragging a carrot through her humus. “When you change?” She bit down with a crunch.

“Not really.” Charlie shrugged. She took a bite of her sandwich and mulled it over while she chewed. “I do get a bit sore sometimes, if I have to change a bunch in a row, but it’s mostly easy as breathing.”

Lucky her. Mona still had nightmares about her first transformation. Konane dead in her arms. Her grief and rage filling her up like a balloon until her shirt had split and it felt like her skin would burst. And the blood. So much blood. Konane’s. The man she’d killed’s. She hadn’t even meant to do it and that was the scariest part of all.

Charlie studied her with shrewd eyes. “It’s not like that for you though, is it?” she asked sadly. She’d tried for days before the Austin mission to get Mona to let Wolfie out. Did she feel bad about it now?

Mona shook her head.

"Man, that sucks!" Charlie said with feeling.

“It’s—” Mona bit her lip “—It’s not quite so bad now.” Not the pain. It still hurt, like, a lot, but it was better. She knew Woflie meant well now. It made letting her take control less scary.

“What do you really look like?” Was she pretty? Ugly? Slimy? Mona hoped she wasn’t slimy.

Charlie laughed. “I’m a shapeshifter, mate.” She took a swig of her beer. “I don’t really look like anything.”

“Okay,” Mona drawled, nodding slowly. She probably had an original form, she had to have been born as something, but it wasn't like Mona's real form was a baby. “So, are you a girl shapeshifter or a boy shapeshifter?”

“Boy? Girl?” Charlie shook her head. “Who needs labels? I’m just me. Whatever I feel like being”

“Right." That made sense. After all, Mona had seen her (them? She really should find out Charlie's preferred pronouns) as President Nixon. "Last question.” She hesitated, licked her lips, and leaned in close. “Are you wearing clothes?”

Charlie smirked and leaned in closer. “No.”